PREVIEW: "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME"

By BILL ERVOLINO

The first hour of the Season Four three-hour-long finale airs at 10 p.m. on Thursday, and then leaves us hanging for a week. (The two-hour "Grey's Anatomy" season finale grabs the night on May 22, and then "Lost" resumes at 9 p.m. on May 29.)

After some new "Alice in Wonderland" references this season, we return to "The Wizard of Oz" for the finale, which is called "There's No Place Like Home."

As we already know, there's a bit of irony in the title, since home isn't all it's cracked up to be for the Oceanic Six. Hurley has another mental breakdown; Sun is raising her child as a single parent; Kate is raising someone else's child; Jack is depressed and over-medicating; and Sayid is facing the death of Nadia and a tentative partnership with Ben.

Someone told me that a character we saw in the S-3 finale will be appearing again. I'll guess that means the undertaker, since I think the mystery of who was in the coffin will most likely be resolved sometime this month. Which leads us to a bunch of other questions we'd like answered:

1. Who was in the coffin, and how did he (or she) get there?
2. Is Claire dead?
3. What happened to Jin and if he is still alive, why doesn't he go home with Sun?
4. Who pulls off the rescue? Since the freighter people are no one's idea of saviors, who will intervene and bring the Oceanic Six back to civilization?
5. Will any other characters who weren't on 815 (Desmond, Juliet, the four new characters, Ben, etc.) also go home?
6. What is the status of Christian's...uh... life? Is he dead?
7. Will Locke take over the island even if Ben remains there?
8. Will we get any new information on Jacob?
9. Will the rest of The Others be seen before this season concludes? (And how about the 815'ers they kidnapped?)
10. Will something HUGE happen that will cause a permanent rift between Kate and James? (We still think he's the guy for her, and can't quite understand why she will leave him behind, or he will let her leave without him.)

I was late posting last week -- there was just so much to absorb -- but hopefully I will get my act together faster this week. In any case, you can always post your comments below.

Excited???

Comments

[Brian is LOST]

I'm most interested in the "story" that the Oceanic 6 must stand by as to how it is they survived the crash. If the world knows that Flight 815 is at the bottom of an ocean (thanks to Widmore) then what explanation will "the 6" give as to how they survived? Will Sun be made to say that Jin perished in the flight? Do all of the "6" have the same reason for keeping their mouths shut (ie, the rest of the island folk will be killed if they don't) or are they each given separate reasons (Sun, we'll kill Jin ... Kate, we'll kill Aaron ... Hurley, we'll kill your mom, etc.)???

So many Q's to be answered that you know something has to be left mysterious for the S4 cliffhanger.

[Michelle]

I'm sure they won't answer all our questions, but I think they have to give us a few. Such as how the 6 that get off the island are picked and why they have to lie about their survival? Do any non-Oceanic people get off the island? Has Ben really given up control of the island or is he playing Locke, again? What is this Temple and why is it so special? How do they move the island? How does moving the island save them from Keamy if he's already on the island?

[Jenny]

Excellent questions, I'll add my own (and one answer):

I think the story they tell has been started for us - remember Jack at Kate's trial started to say there were 8 survivors of the crash. So, I think they will say that Claire and Jin died after the crash, to explain Aaron and Sun's pregnancy.

But that's the easy part - as noted, the bigger question is why is it so important to hide the fact that other people are on the island? We have some hint in that obviously the Others would like it that way, and people like Bernard and Rose and Locke have clearly chosen to stay on the island.

As for that pesky decoy plane near Bali, who knows!

I do think Desmond is getting off the island - in fact he may end up with the credit for rescuing everyone, having arrived on his own in a sailboat. I think Michael is also getting off (because I remain convinced it's him in the coffin), and Juliet would also make sense. She likely would want to do it incognito to avoid having to explain how she got there, what she was doing there, etc, to protect the island.

But back to the coffin - there are strong hints that we will see a funeral, but I don't think it will be the once we've already been to. Remember, that one takes place when Jack is at his worst, and the beginning of that wasn't seen until August 2007, more than 2.5 years after the rescue. I think that one is Michael (only explanation for Kate's reaction and the lack of other mourners IMO).

The funeral(s) we will see will be for those who did not survive the crash, and for Christian, because that's why Jack was in a hurry to get on the plane in the first place - to get his body back for the funeral.

While we're at it, I don't think Jin is necessarily dead, just has sacrificed his own spot in the rescue to Sun. The grave marker is just one of hundreds that probably went up when the plane disappeared/or the fake one was found, thus the date of the crash. Sun may be just keeping up appearances until the day she can reunite with him - because of course by now Locke will have "moved" the island.

PS love this blog because I always find details and theories I haven't seen anywhere else.

[Paul]

As someone else suggested - moving the island could mean moving it in time - not space.

[Bill Ervolino]

FROM BILL: I guess it's also possible that someone else will die and, for whatever reasons, that body will be passed off as Jin's. Not sure how that would work, but I guess it's a possibility. (Perhaps Jin does not want to face Sun's father after attempting to run off with her. Or maybe he is being sought in the murder of Sun's boyfriend.) I also think that Locke's future is a major Season 5 plotline, since our Locke episode this season was NOT a flash-forward. Any guesses as to who will rescue the Oceanic Six? Penny? Some passing military or good will freighter? A carnival cruise ship?

[Rob]

They might also "move" the island by eliminating the information about its location and the people that are searching for it. The island seems to be invisible to all but those that know it exists and how precisely to get to it. It might be why Sayid is knocking off certain people after his return.

[Barry Smith]

The screen shot from this week's preview (that you used with this post) looks like a military cargo plane, a C-130, or maybe something larger. Not really sure, but my guess is Penny arranged for it. Maybe she was expecting more survivors, hence the large craft. (It may actually be an amphibious landing craft, but I still think it's Penny's doing.)

[Michelle]

I agree with Barry that the plane was sent by Penny. Remember she's the one that saw Charlie on the video screen in the underwater hatch. Also Charlie's my pick for one of the 8 survivors, and of course Claire is the other.

[Juliet]

Best Line: "How many times do I have to tell, JOHN? I always have a plan."

Best Scene: Sun telling her father that she bought controlling interest in Paik Industries!

Most intriguing:

- Daniel had the Dharma Orchid logo in his journal. [has he been to the island before???]

- Charlotte's look, when Daniel was leaving to ferry the first 6 to the freighter.

Observations:
- When Kate looked nervous and was looking around at the airport, I thought she was looking for the authorities to arrest her, not looking for her mother...[she had reason to believe her mother was already dead, based on the last time she saw her...]

- Great to see Richard again! As usual, the Others shown were vague/almost unrecognizable...like the emphasis was just on Richard. Very interested in where they are headed.

Questions:

- Now we have Sun and Aaron on the freighter, but the remaining O6 are scattered on the island:
Jack is near the helicopter, Hurley is still with Locke/Ben, Sayid and Kate are with the Others.
Wondering how they will all get together to get off the island as the O6...

- Sun's comment to her father- IS Jin really dead, or is she play-acting with him???

- Who rescued the O6? The plane looks chartered by Oceanic Airlines, since there is an OA rep with them... We've seen that the freighter is at risk for blowing up... Maybe Penny sent some craft for rescue, but that Coast Guard plane did NOT have pontoons, so it took off from land, right? So how did the O6 get to that plane???

Disbelief:
- Don't know how in LOST, they can ask the viewers to believe that women who are 6mo pregnant don't show at all!! [Emily Locke, and the ruse of Kate being prego]
This claim that Kate is Aaron's mother covers for story purposes, but we are also asked to accept [this 6 MONTH old looking baby] Aaron as being 5 wks old upon rescue??? yeah, sure...

Is this why Kate is not immediately arrested? Due to having a baby?
The service for Christian was 7 mos [approx] after rescue, and Kate's trial was even further into the future, perhaps 1.5-2 yrs.
Why does it take so long, and how is it that Kate is left free for the time before her trial?? [house arrest, curfew, high bail? Publicity from the O6? Good lawyer?] Kinda shady there...